Code Lyoko Evolution is the sequel series of the French animated series, Code Lyoko (2003-2007). It first premiered on December 19, 2012 in France and February 28, 2013 in the USA. It consists of twenty-six episodes. Unlike the original series, it consists of live-action for scenes on Earth and still contains 3D computer animation for Lyoko. The soundtrack has been overhauled as well.

Contents

Plot

One year after the events of the original series, Jeremie Belpois, Odd Della Robbia, Ulrich Stern, Yumi Ishiyama and Aelita Schaeffer return to their daily lives and routines at Kadic Academy. However, they soon come to the realization that their old virtual archenemy, X.A.N.A., suddenly reappears and has been succcessfully reborn with even more strength and power than ever before. The six Lyoko Warriors resume their former double lives in order to protect humanity from X.A.N.A.'s evil schemes once again. Joined by William Dunbar, who has finally been accepted as the sixth Lyoko Warrior, and an unreliable girl-genius named Laura Gauthier, the seven heroes are bent on unraveling the reasons for such a return and to exterminate the malevolently evil sentient, autonomous artificial intelligence/multi-agent system that is threatening the world once again.

In addition to X.A.N.A., the gang eventually discover that they have another dangerous enemy, a mad scientist named Professor Tyron, who seems to be the one responsible for inadvertantly returning X.A.N.A. to life. He commands The Ninjas, a group of several virtual human avatars in green and black-striped costumes to counter the Lyoko Warriors. In Tyron's lab the group also discovers Aelita's long-lost mother, Anthea Hopper-Schaeffer, and seek to discover why she is with their new enemy and how to reunite mother and daughter.

In episode Ultimate Mission, it is revealed that Tyron has been married to Anthea for four years and is now Aelita's legal guardian and stepfather. His only purpose of marrying Anthea was to get his hands on her late husband's archives so that he could effectively create the Cortex region, which X.A.N.A. then secretly inhabited to carry put its plans for world domination and destruction once again.

Production

On May 31, 2011, Moonscoop announced that a sequel series initally consisting of twenty-six episodes is in development. The filming of the live-action scenes took part during the summer of 2012. It was announced in June that filming would last 45 days during the summer, and that animation would take place between July 2nd and August 31st.

It uses live action for Earth-based scenes and remains in CGI for Lyoko scenes. Twenty-six episodes of the show will be aired on Canal J and France 3 in France. The season is estimated to have a budget of €5,600,000. Moonscoop has developed an extensive licensing and merchandising campaign around the IP including an upcoming live show to launch in Spain. On YouTube, several videos were released showcasing various elements of the show: "evolutions" of characters, the MegaPod, and others. A few teasers were also released, some of which are dubbed in English. For the United States, Code Lyoko Evolution was not picked up by Cartoon Network, but aired instead on the channel Kabillion on February 28, 2013.[1]

Others seem to act like they never entered towers before, as seen when Odd tried to deactivate the tower for the first time.

Sissi, at least so far, had only made two cameo appearances rather than messing around with Lyoko Warriors or trying to compete for Ulrich's attention, like prior to the live action series. This could be explained as being due to her now being on more platonic terms with them as of the last episode of the original series, thus removing her motivation to antagonize them.

This series lacks spoken reference to the Subdigitals, however, they are not disbanded because we can see them on Aelita's social network profile page when she looks for her mother on her laptop in the episode, The Trap.

Jean-Pierre Delmas seems to have a fresh shave than his normally seen beard in the animated series. He is seen as a more younger version than his original design.

The character Samantha Knight has had her role in the series replaced by a new character, Samantha Suarez. They share the same role as Odd's love interest, but Suarez is merely an adaptation of Knight, not the same character.

Odd's hair on Earth is now light brown, but still features his trademark purple streak at the front.

Towers have had a drastic redesign. They are now rectangular rather than cylindrical. They cannot be entered when not activated, with the exclusion of Way Towers.

Yumi is assumed to be a boarder by some fans as she can be seen going to the upper floor of the dormitory, where the girls reside, and she doesn't leave the school grounds with the rest of the day students as she normally has. However, in the sixteenth episode, Confusion she mentions getting ready "at home" therefore leaving it a possibility that she is still a day student. Her parents and younger brother Hiroki have also been mentioned in the series.

The bridge to the Factory is never shown; though very far in the background.

After someone is devirtualized, it takes twelve hours in order to be virtualized on Lyoko again. In Code Lyoko, it used to take twenty-four hours.

Aelita's mother Anthea was seen alive in this season, and the Lyoko Warriors strive to reunite mother and daughter after discovering her. She seems to work for Professor Tyron and believes that her daughter is dead.

Aelita stays on Earth more often during missions now; due to the fact that she is no longer the only team member who can deactivate the towers or collect important data. It is to be stated, however, that she still attends missions on Lyoko.

Gallery

The first promotional image released on codelyoko.com.

The first promotional image to feature the live action cast.

The Code Lyoko Evolution logo.

The concept of Lyoko Warriors's new virtual appearance.

Odd's new Arrow launcher.

A promotional image originally used to advertise the advance screening.

Image used on codelyoko.com's Evolution-themed website, featuring the gang in their season 4 attire.